Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

How was the end of the 2010s for you? How has the start of the 2020s gone?
My year was upwards moving, with mostly happy things acquired in my life. Lots of new things happened too like I began a new career in the medical field. Within the first few months of being a CNA, a patient died on my shift, which meant it was my job to clean the body. It wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. As a matter of fact, it was a sort of spiritual experience.

My 2020 has begun lowkey. Not really much going on except for work and home life. Just like my 2019, home is drama free for the most part. Every once in a while someone comes around that attempts to bring drama in our home, but we get rid of them pretty quick.

What have you been up to lately? Any new year (or decade) resolutions going on?
I've never made new year resolutions and I don't suspect I will in the future. I always thought it was a silly tradition.

How were your holidays? Did you travel? See family? Get any nice gifts?
I'm pretty spoiled these days. For Yule, my boyfriend got me a new phone, a Garmin watch, and webcam. Plus, In November he dished out like $1500 dollars towards my dental work.

When I was 18, I went to the dentist for the first time and was told that if I didn't do something like porcelain overlays I'd lose my teeth before the age of 40. I have a condition, due to childhood malnutrition, where my enamel didn't develop correctly. It breaks easily and my teeth decay quickly. Somehow I was able to keep my teeth in pretty good shape, despite the issue. Well, for the most part. In my early 20's I had to have most of my back teeth removed. But, it wasn't visible. Then, when I was 35, my ex-husband knocked out three of my top front teeth. I chose to get partials because it was the cheaper fix, especially since I was missing a lot of my molars on the top anyway. Well, the metal has been rubbing on my remaining back teeth for close to nine years and the enamel finally gave and one of them literally just broke completely off to the gum while I was eating a sandwich. The result is, I had the rest of my uppers pulled and got a pretty new set of teeth. Due to having good insurance and my boyfriend helping out financially, I was able to get a high-quality set that should last me most of my life.

For dinner, we didn't do anything huge like a turkey or ham. Instead, I got ribeye steaks for my daughter and tuna steak for my boyfriend. We celebrate ours the 21st of December, which left me open to work on the 25th. So, I spent, Christmas day working for double pay on top of overtime, which means I was making 30ish dollars an hour.

How has your mental health been lately? Any new therapy, medication, or self-care progress?
I have my moments, but for the most part, my mental health has been on the upside for quite some time. When I do have an issue it's easier to deal with since I have a strong support system now.

I had a bit of an emotional breakdown, due to several patients I cared a lot about dying within a one month span, but it was brief. It wasn't like I didn't know they'd eventually pass. I know that might read like I'm cold. Well, maybe I am to some people's standards, but death is just a fact of life.

Anything new with your writing or other hobbies? What have you been doing on WDC lately?

I've been a total slacker on WDC. It is sort of good in a way because it means that I've got good stuff going on offline keeping me busy, but it sucks when I sign up to help with something then I end up not having the time. That happened recently with Rising Stars. I agreed to be a co-leader, then I totally ghosted Lilli. I didn't mean to. Life just happened. The result was that I requested to be removed from leadership so she could find someone more reliable.

Do you have any non-labor intensive ideas for the group? (ie. things that would be fun to do together as a group that wouldn't require a lot of time/planning?)

You could always add a list of challenges without a deadline. They could be sectioned out into subtopics, like blog entries, poetry, reviews, short stories, etc. That way you are not having to come up with challenges each month. I know that some people like myself get busy with life and end up missing some of the month's challenges, some of which we can identify with later, so it would give us a chance to write for them since there is no particular deadline.

Maybe some of us here could take turns doing a discussion on a particular topic via facetime chat. Of course, not everyone would have to use a webcam if they are uncomfortable with that. Some could just use their microphones.

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